NY Times Blockbuster: NASA Officials Loosen Acceptable Risk Standards for Shuttle.

"James" wrote:

Two years of testing since the loss of the Columbia and its crew of
seven have shown that the shuttle's skin, designed primarily to resist
the blistering heat of re-entry, is far more vulnerable to debris from
the external fuel tank than had been thought.

And why the hell is this? Why don't they know exactly what kind of damage
the skin can take? This is inexcusable.

Inexcusable in your dream world maybe. (Actually you share that dream
world with a lot of ignorant folks.)

Out here in the real world, some degree of imprecision is impossible
to escape.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL